England Eases Rules On Assisted Suicide

Story from the Wall Street Journal

LONDON -- English authorities made it easier for a family acting out of compassion to help a terminally ill relative to commit suicide, marking a victory for advocates of assisted suicide.

While it will continue to be illegal to help someone commit suicide, England's top prosecutor said the state will be unlikely to prosecute someone for helping a relative who had a clear wish to die, and also a terminal illness or "severe and incurable physical disability."

Keir Starmer, director of public prosecutions for England and Wales, said the state will be more likely to prosecute cases in which the victim wasn't mentally able to make up his own mind, or where the victim was pressured, or didn't have a "clear, settled and informed wish to commit suicide," or was under 18 years old.

Mr. Starmer issued the guidelines after a court ordered him to this summer. The new guidelines, which also apply to Wales, went into force Wednesday, though they are technically interim guidelines that will be open to public debate before final guidelines are issued next year.

Multiple-sclerosis sufferer Debbie Purdy, left, with her husband in July.
Ms. Purdy has fought to force England to clarify assisted-suicide rules

Debate about assisted suicide has come to a head here in recent years, as a number of families have helped terminally ill or paralyzed relatives travel to Switzerland to commit suicide at a clinic called Dignitas

This has put the relatives in a legal gray area. England has never chosen to prosecute any families for this, but the threat of prosecution has hung over them. That has led to calls for the chief prosecutor to clarify the rules.

Dignity in Dying, a nonprofit group that supports assisted suicide, welcomed the new guidelines. "In order to protect the public there will understandably be some situations where prosecutions are warranted. The guidelines sensibly distinguish between compassionate behavior and behavior which is potentially malicious," said Sarah Wootton, chief executive of Dignity in Dying, in a statement.

But she added that England should still change the law to clearly legalize assisted suicide when it is motivated by compassion. Thus far, attempts to change the laws have either stalled or been shot down in Parliament.

England is the latest country to grapple with the ethics of assisted suicide. Several European nations, including the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium, have passed laws in recent years allowing for some forms of doctor-assisted suicide. In the U.S., Oregon has made it legal for doctors to prescribe life-ending drugs to some mentally competent but gravely ill people.